pynchon-l-digest V2 #1193

[Nudeants at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/27/00 8:30:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
r.wank at cable.a2000.nl writes:

<< And yet: I have the feeling that all this would fit in so much  more in a
 thread in a William Seymour Borroughs d. group. Pynchon is NOT music. Music
 is too much time-bound even if it succeeds in creating space.  GR -
 Pynchon's only book as far as I'm concerned - with all its ac/decelerations
 attempts nothing less than giving a blue-print of (human) consciousness.
 Nothing less. Is it music? No. Is it a building? Not quite. (That is to say:
 that wouldn't sufficiently describe it.) What would then discribe it
 sufficiently? Well, Gravity's Rainbow is the best attempt so far and
 whatever one can say can only refer to the BOOK but not "explain" it. The
 fog might lift in another hundred years and we could have a clear view of
 the issues then if we were still around. But we won't.
 So I'm afraid we're all back to the book - GR - as its own raison d'etre and
 explanation. >>
I do agree with this.  I was merely contesting the Pynchon=Coltrane issue, 
which admittedly wasn't a big one until I apprently made it into one.  I 
actually do abhor direct literal comparisons between art forms.  After all, 
art form 'a' wouldn't exist if art form 'b' filled our needs completely, 
etc...

I meant my original point more in the spirit of 'if I had to compare GR to 
something in music, it would be...' and so on.

matt mitchell